How to Shuffle Only Your Music in the iOS 10 Music App

I like to shuffle my music library on my iPhone. I used to go to Songs, then tap Shuffle Songs. But in iOS 10, I was surprised. It didn’t play my music; at least not just my music. It played music from Apple Music.

It seems that if you have an Apple Music subscription, and you have Apple Music turned on on your device, then “Songs” includes your entire Apple Music library, even if you don’t have iCloud Music Library on. And shuffling songs pulls music from the cloud rather than from your library. Even if you don’t have an Apple Music subscription, shuffling songs in this way will also access purchased music in the cloud.

To only shuffle your own music, tap Downloaded Music. This is the music you have synced to your iOS device, excluding purchases or Apple Music tracks.

Ios top level

Tap Songs, and the Music app informs you that it’s only showing music on the device. Tap Shuffle Songs to shuffle the music on the device:

Shuffle downlloaded music

This is a bit confusing, especially because the term “Downloaded Music” suggests that it is only music that you have downloaded, not synced. Perhaps Local Music might be more correct.

In any case, if you only want to shuffle music on your device, you have to use an extra step to do so.

Want to know more about the iOS 10 Music app? Check out these articles:

And learn What’s New in iTunes 12.5.